When I first decided I was going to take five months off and travel around Southeast Asia one of the main questions that came up was “how are you going to get around?” This was a very good question. I researched all about Bali and Thailand’s transportation and it was a mix of good and bad reviews. I’m currently in Thailand so once I get the transportation down more I’ll be writing a blog about it.
As far as Bali goes most articles and blogs I read said to rent a scooter or car.
They also said you would need an international license. There are Ubers, Grabs, and taxis for those of you that cant imagine driving in a foreign country. If you take this route I recommend Grab hands down. They are super cheap, you can book online, and the drivers are super friendly. The downside is they’re only in certain areas of Bali and sometimes the driver is unaware of your location making it hard to get picked up and sometimes even harder to be dropped off.
When I looked into renting a scooter it became clear to be careful of scam artists and always wear a helmet. I heard the Bali’s traffic was crazy insane but I didn’t know how crazy until I arrived at the airport and walked outside. I thought Texas, California, and Colorado had wild drivers; Bali is on a whole other level. Here they drive on the left side of the road, turn two lanes into four, bikes bob and weeve out of cars like nothing, the roads are super narrow, and you can sometimes be stuck in traffic for hours if your in a car. Oh and there really are no traffic laws. Here you can see family’s of five all riding together on one scooter and children of all ages without helmets.
This brought me back to the thought about always wearing a helmet and the whole international license thing. Why is it suggested we wear a helmet when there are children riding without one? Well in the end it has nothing to do with safety. Here police have a thing for pulling over tourists without one in hopes to leave with a cash bribe. Our first host Larry who picked us up from the airport was from Australia, spoke great English and had been living in Bali for a few years. He was able to tell us the ins and outs of Bali and all about it’s crazy traffic.
First off bikes in Bali when rented through an actual agency or your Airbnb host shouldn’t cost more than 70,000 IDR. (roughly $5 U.S) When we were in Padang Bai we had asked a police officer where the nearest bike rental was and how much. After discussing with another man in Indonesia he told us 150,000 IDR. This is a police officer we’re talking to. I’m not sure if he planned on taking us to the place and keeping a finders fee or what but we decided to walk around ourselves and find the place. It pays to do your research and be educated on the foreign country your visiting. We found the local bike rental and paid 70,000 IDR for the day.
When renting a bike through an agency you simply discuss how long you want the bike for, sign a piece of paper and your on your way. There was nothing brought up about an international license although this is totally up to your discretion if you want one or not. I couldn’t begin to tell you how to get one because we never tried. We also didn’t interact with police at all because we wore our helmets the whole time. I’m not sure what the consequences would be for not having an international license we decided to take our chances and it worked out fine for us.
While visiting Seminyak Larry had taken us to a rental with bicycles and scooters. We wanted to bicycle around Lio Square. We quickly learned it is cheaper to rent a scooter for 70,000 IDR than a bicycle for 80,000 IDR especially if there are two of you.You get the luxury of getting from point A to point B much faster and your not as worn out from peddling everywhere.
Gas or Petrol (called benzin or bensin here) for scooters is very cheap and there are two ways of getting your tank filled. First one is an actual gas station where there are men to pump your gas for you and it takes about 15,000 IDR to fill a scooter. The other way is to stop at these tiny huts along the road that have random water bottles and vodka bottles filled with blue liquid (petrol.)They cost a little less than 5,000 IDR a liter, however are rumored to be dirty and watered down for profit. Also last time I checked Absolute Vodka came in 750ml bottles so your paying less but also recieving less petrol. We used our bikes on a three day stretch all over the place and ended at about a half tank. The gas goes a long way.
It takes a minute to get used to the crazy driving but basically once you keep up with locals it isn’t too bad. There was a few times we were stopped in back to back traffic and decided to follow other bikes out where the cars continued to sit for 20 to 30 minutes at a time. You don’t have this choice in a car. Also if you plan on doing an Airbnb some are located down small alley ways where a car physically won’t fit. Like I said earlier you can take a Grab from point A to point B but sometimes you will end up walking because the car doesn’t fit or the driver is unsure how to get there. Yes you would think it’s 2018 there’s gps and google maps but apparently this isn’t always true in Bali.
When you rent your own bike you can pull up a map on your phone and go wherever you want whenever you want. At the end of the day it benefits to have your own means of transportation, you will want this while traveling the island. All in all the bike is a much better idea and you can’t beat the price. I hope this blog helped some of you future travelers, enjoy Bali it’s beautiful!
